August 2011
Updates
I apologize for this update being late. It has been a busy summer. We’ve had 3 visitors from Russia staying with us for the last 2 months. We’ve been to the MARC national, Legoland, Disneyland, San Francisco, etc. In addition, we hosted a Hatch-Day party for Gus (a 26 year old Galapagos Tortoise) and had over 200 people sign the guest book.
The “new engine” seminar was presented at the MARC national convention in San Diego. The 2 hour seminar lasted well over 3 hours. Emphasis was on the differences between 1920’s and modern design, and how fatigue failures were not quantified until the 1960’s. Cylinder block #1 was on display (all others have been cut up to check for core shift and wall thickness) along with the 5 main bearing crankshaft and connecting rod. There was a lot of interest and several people have been added to the Email update list.
In case someone gets this Email without seeing the article on the new Model A engine, the article can be found at: http://www.modelaengine.com
If anyone has a question, concern, comment, or suggestion, please let me know at model.a.engine@hotmail.com,
and I’ll do my best to resolve the issue.
Readers of this update need to understand that this effort is a 1 man operation, privately funded, and I also have other commitments. Every change is being made from an engineering point of view of how things can be made better and cheaper while staying within the restraints of keeping the exterior as original and maintaining all interfaces for attaching parts as original. To keep costs at a minimum, I am both the engineer and pattern maker.
Since this is a development project, Lodi Iron Works and I have an agreement that production comes first (Production pays the bills), and this project is a fill in job. When the ball is in my court to make a change, I do my best to make pattern and core box changes in a timely manner in order to pass the ball back to Lodi Iron Works.
Cylinder Block
The latest casting also had venting problems with entrapped gas at the uppermost part of the mold cavity. The remainder of the casting looked great.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it took Ford several attempts to get a good casting.
During the last casting, tooling used to help hold the valve chamber cavity in position was damaged by hot iron. The next casting attempt will be made using chaplets to hold the core in position instead of tooling.
In addition, core box changes have also been made in preparation for the next casting, Major changes include:
1) Addition of super magnets to several core boxes that will hold core reinforcements in place while cores are being made
2) Cutting the upper half of the intake and exhaust port core box into 3 pieces to make core extraction easier.
Minor changes made to the core boxes include elimination of a step in the upper core holder and extending the length of the upper water jacket core prints. Both of these changes have been made to reduce labor and increase yield.
Gating and venting for the next casting attempt will be different. It will manually be cut into the sand and documented with photos and the excess iron exterior to the casting. If the new scheme works to eliminate the entrapped gas problem, then it will be incorporated into the core boxes and patterns.
Lodi Iron Works is making a core assembly this week (Aug 15-19), and is scheduled to make the mold and pour next week.
Connecting Rod, Main Caps, and Crankshaft
The material used to cast these parts was Meehanite SP80 (80-55-06). This material is close to the material used in the 1960’s thru current baseline engines.
On the way to the MARC meet in San Diego, I spoke with Jim at Cunningham Rods, Tom Lieb at SCAT, Joe at Bryant racing, and David at Marine Crankshaft regarding machining of connecting rods and crankshafts. SCAT is the only shop set up for production. Both SCAT and Bryant racing do not want to rough machine nodular iron (Meehanite) because when cutting, both a chip and a small granular particle are created. The small granular particle can get into the ways of a very expensive machine and cause wear. After rough machining, the crankshaft needs to be ground, and there is no problem in grinding nodular iron. The range of crankshafts being made was amazing. I saw everything from a WW1 airplane (very crude) to top fuel dragsters and tractor pulls (state of the art). I would guess that the top fuel and tractor pull crankshafts are in the range of $20K each, and they are good for 6 runs. After 6 runs, they are discarded because they have a high probability of fatigue failure.
Lodi Iron Works has another foundry in Galt, Calif. where they pour steel castings like 4130 and other alloys. When machining steel, most of the removed material is a chip which is too large to cause problems.
Another option is to have the crankshaft and connecting rods made in China.
Next Update
The next update will be in 2
months or sooner.
Terry Burtz, Campbell, Calif.
Updates
I apologize for this update being late. It has been a busy summer. We’ve had 3 visitors from Russia staying with us for the last 2 months. We’ve been to the MARC national, Legoland, Disneyland, San Francisco, etc. In addition, we hosted a Hatch-Day party for Gus (a 26 year old Galapagos Tortoise) and had over 200 people sign the guest book.
The “new engine” seminar was presented at the MARC national convention in San Diego. The 2 hour seminar lasted well over 3 hours. Emphasis was on the differences between 1920’s and modern design, and how fatigue failures were not quantified until the 1960’s. Cylinder block #1 was on display (all others have been cut up to check for core shift and wall thickness) along with the 5 main bearing crankshaft and connecting rod. There was a lot of interest and several people have been added to the Email update list.
In case someone gets this Email without seeing the article on the new Model A engine, the article can be found at: http://www.modelaengine.com
If anyone has a question, concern, comment, or suggestion, please let me know at model.a.engine@hotmail.com,
and I’ll do my best to resolve the issue.
Readers of this update need to understand that this effort is a 1 man operation, privately funded, and I also have other commitments. Every change is being made from an engineering point of view of how things can be made better and cheaper while staying within the restraints of keeping the exterior as original and maintaining all interfaces for attaching parts as original. To keep costs at a minimum, I am both the engineer and pattern maker.
Since this is a development project, Lodi Iron Works and I have an agreement that production comes first (Production pays the bills), and this project is a fill in job. When the ball is in my court to make a change, I do my best to make pattern and core box changes in a timely manner in order to pass the ball back to Lodi Iron Works.
Cylinder Block
The latest casting also had venting problems with entrapped gas at the uppermost part of the mold cavity. The remainder of the casting looked great.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it took Ford several attempts to get a good casting.
During the last casting, tooling used to help hold the valve chamber cavity in position was damaged by hot iron. The next casting attempt will be made using chaplets to hold the core in position instead of tooling.
In addition, core box changes have also been made in preparation for the next casting, Major changes include:
1) Addition of super magnets to several core boxes that will hold core reinforcements in place while cores are being made
2) Cutting the upper half of the intake and exhaust port core box into 3 pieces to make core extraction easier.
Minor changes made to the core boxes include elimination of a step in the upper core holder and extending the length of the upper water jacket core prints. Both of these changes have been made to reduce labor and increase yield.
Gating and venting for the next casting attempt will be different. It will manually be cut into the sand and documented with photos and the excess iron exterior to the casting. If the new scheme works to eliminate the entrapped gas problem, then it will be incorporated into the core boxes and patterns.
Lodi Iron Works is making a core assembly this week (Aug 15-19), and is scheduled to make the mold and pour next week.
Connecting Rod, Main Caps, and Crankshaft
The material used to cast these parts was Meehanite SP80 (80-55-06). This material is close to the material used in the 1960’s thru current baseline engines.
On the way to the MARC meet in San Diego, I spoke with Jim at Cunningham Rods, Tom Lieb at SCAT, Joe at Bryant racing, and David at Marine Crankshaft regarding machining of connecting rods and crankshafts. SCAT is the only shop set up for production. Both SCAT and Bryant racing do not want to rough machine nodular iron (Meehanite) because when cutting, both a chip and a small granular particle are created. The small granular particle can get into the ways of a very expensive machine and cause wear. After rough machining, the crankshaft needs to be ground, and there is no problem in grinding nodular iron. The range of crankshafts being made was amazing. I saw everything from a WW1 airplane (very crude) to top fuel dragsters and tractor pulls (state of the art). I would guess that the top fuel and tractor pull crankshafts are in the range of $20K each, and they are good for 6 runs. After 6 runs, they are discarded because they have a high probability of fatigue failure.
Lodi Iron Works has another foundry in Galt, Calif. where they pour steel castings like 4130 and other alloys. When machining steel, most of the removed material is a chip which is too large to cause problems.
Another option is to have the crankshaft and connecting rods made in China.
Next Update
The next update will be in 2
months or sooner.
Terry Burtz, Campbell, Calif.
